"But Nagi-kun…how come you didn't tell me about the baby hamsters? I love babies of all kinds!" Omi squeaked, lower lip pouting.

"I already explained this to you. We were afraid Schuldig would want to see what it looked like when a Mommy hamster ate her babies so we put Curtina in isolation until the babies were old enough to be given away. But if he found out they existed they'd be in danger and you don't have any mental shielding."

"You think I'm inadequate, don't you?"

"Where did that come from? Look, only in this mental capacity-that didn't come out right! Stop looking like you're all…"

"But Nagi-kun! You're implying that you think I can't handle myself when it comes to your teammates-stop laughing! I'm a tough cookie, I can take-oh come on! Stop laughing!"

"You called yourself a cookie." Nagi said with a smirk. "Oh come on, that's cute."

"Remember that conversation we had about compliments? About how using them as an insult isn't okay?" Omi reminded him bitterly.

"Sorry." Nagi said, not sounding very sorry but still condescendingly amused. "It's just, y'know, you being equal…with Schwarz. Can't you see how that's funny? You gotta know where I'm coming from…and you're making the bad face…and you're not gonna stop whining until I apologize even if I don't know what it's for." He trailed off.

"So you're telling me that every time you apologized to me you didn't even know what you were doing and you were just on autopil-"

"Oh God, Omi just stop for a second! Okay, I get that you're upset right now, but you know what, you're just being a big bucket of crazy that I can't handle right now so we're going to step back for a minute and cool down. Come on, step back with me."

Omi threw a plushie doll at his head.

"Hey, those have button eyes! Okay, come on, look at the conversation for a second. For starters, you've been a horrible host today-"

"WHAT?!" Omi squeaked. "I made you fudge!"
"You always make fudge! And Farf's the one who likes fudge! I only eat it to be polite. It kinda sticks in my throat and makes me sick-"

"I make you sick do I? Fine, see if I ever make you fudge again."

"I don't even understand why you're mad! I should be the one who's mad! I came over here to get some and instead I come here and sit through five episodes of Ceres, the stupidest chick anime I have ever seen! What, is every man in love with her?"

"Is that the only reason you come over here? I thought you wanted to be with me…" Omi sniffed.

"Well yeah, you know with you. What? That's not being with you? It's not as much fun alone."

Less than five minutes later Nagi was thrown bodily from the room and the door was slammed in his face.

Grumbling under his breath, Nagi edged quietly towards the stairs, hoping to exit the Koneko before the gay cowboy could mock him.

He made it down the stairs and into the store part where he almost walked into Shuichi Takatori, who was wearing a baseball hat and sunglasses but was still incredibly recognizable in his tailored suit with his distinctive beard. Nagi took a few steps backwards and fled back into the apartment part of the building before Persia, the Weiss' boss, could recognize him. The Weiss were still completely unaware their orders came from the man, but Schwarz had been clued in a while ago that their temporary boss' brother was pulling their pseudo-enemies' strings. Based on the review Nagi had witnessed (ch. 9 – A/N) he knew it would end extremely badly for his boyfriend if he was seen in the Weiss' house.

He peeked into the shop once he was out of view. 'Shit, he's blocking the exit. And coming this way.' Nagi fled back up the stairs and knocked on Omi's door.

"Omi! Hey, I was being an idiot. You're right and wonderful, like always. I'm a stupid emotionally stunted child. Let me in, let's cuddle."

"I hate you!" Omi squeaked.

Nagi needed a plan. If he lingered in the hallway Persia would see him, and he couldn't exactly explain to the Weiss who the man in the sunglasses was. Omi would think he was just making it up.

"Oh quit being such a girl. Maybe I'd have had more luck if I'd gone to that concert with Tot tonight instead." Nagi suggested.

Omi flung the door open, a look of absolute rage on his face. He had darts raised in one of his hands.

Nagi swiftly dove into the room as the darts whizzed past his head and stuck into the wall behind him. He covered Omi's mouth with his hand, an action that turned out not to be fully necessary as he was mute with rage. Nagi slammed the bedroom door shut with his telekinesis.

"Omi I didn't mean it, ow! Did you bite me?" Nagi asked, pulling his hand away.

"I dunno, could you even feel that? Do you have feelings?" Omi hissed back.

"Yeah, yeah, no feelings, got it…listen, there's something more important going on right now-"

"More important than us?" Omi whimpered, eyes going large and watery.

"Well, well no, I mean nothing's more important than that but there are some things that are also important in an almost equal kinda way like…like your job maybe?" He asked hopefully.

"Are you threatening me?" Omi demanded.

"Ah…um…"

Meanwhile Persia was skulking around the apartment attached to the Koneko, looking for some sort of evidence of abuse. Besides an abundance of helmets, which didn't necessarily constitute abuse, he was at a loss.

"Baby plugs in the outlets…" He muttered to himself. "Baby gates…oh shit, one of them isn't hiding a girlfriend and illegitimate child, are they? Possibly Balinese…always had a bad feeling about that one. Maybe an illegal daycare? One can always hope…" He trailed off as he heard some disturbing noises coming from down the hall. He tip toed over to a bedroom door, which was open a crack.

He peeked inside and once he realized what he was looking at beat a hasty retreat. He'd never seen candle wax misused to such an extent in his life.

"Ow! Aya…do you have to put that there?"

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"Well?" Manx asked impatiently.

"I didn't see anything that worries me." At Manx's incredulous stare he felt the need to elaborate. "Hey! What those adult men do behind closed doors is their own business. As long as it's consensual and they keep Bombay out of it, I don't have a problem with it."

"What?" Manx looked confused and also a bit horrified.

"What-what? Well what have you been talking about?"

"He's been abusing his teammates, physically!" Manx screeched, starting to feel frustrated with her apparently thick boss.

"Well I don't think it counts as abuse if they like it, I mean there's a lot of stress in that job and if this is how they want to work it off I don't have a problem with-"

"He broke pots over them and…what are you talking about Shuichi?" Manx asked suddenly.

"It's cheaper than a shrink, isn't it? I mean…" He'd gone red. "Um…I'll go back."

"No, no. I want to make sure we're on the same page here. What did you see?" Manx insisted.

"Candle wax." He shuddered.

"I don't understand-"

"I'm not going into this any further so just take that. But if you're going to keep on me about this abuse thing I suppose we can sign Abyssinian up for some anger management classes or something."

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"You did it on purpose and don't pretend you didn't! I hate you!"

"What? This had nothing to do with you or your fucking hamster. She keeps following me home!" Schuldig yelled defensively. He was laying on the living room sofa with a Bombay kitten stuck to his chest. Try as he might he couldn't extract the thing. And Farfarello was yelling at him while defensively clutching his baby hamster.

"Where did you even get that, that thing!?" Farfarello demanded.

"I told you, it just keeps following me!" Schuldig yelled. "I'm not even nice to it." He started petting her fur the wrong way, which Looney Tunes had taught him was a good way to anger a cat. However the little Bombay kitten started purring.

'Yay! Attention!' The kitten decided.

Schuldig wrinkled his nose in distaste and made a renewed effort to extract the cat, but when he tugged at it, it sank its claws into his t-shirt. "Oh c'mon, I don't wanna rip this one."

"I'm not coming out until you get rid of the cat." Farfarello announced, slamming his bedroom door shut.

"Suit yourself!" Schuldig answered. He reached over to the coffee table and picked up the remote control.

"Are you getting rid of the cat?" Farf asked through the door.

"Nope." Schu picked up a coaster and popped it on the cat's head. "Ooo, it balances." The cat continued to purr. "Where did you come from?" He asked as he placed a soda on the coaster. If he'd been slightly more attentive to the cat beyond assessing that it did in fact exist, he would have noticed the personalized collar and tag the cat was wearing, which was engraved with a happy birthday message from Nagi, from when he'd given the cat to Omi. Her name was Gardenia.

"Now I wonder if this is because of a flat head or if your head is soft because you're a kitten and I'm just making it flat." Schuldig continued stacking things on the kitten's head, and she continued purring, occasionally licking his hand when it came close to her mouth.

"Farfarello I have a mission for…what the hell are you doing Schuldig?" Crawford asked as he entered the room.

Schuldig was tempted to shrug but at this point he didn't want to upset the kitten's balance. "Stacking things on Hazel's head."

"Hazel?"

"She needed a name. And I was watching Looney Tunes. Her name is Witch Hazel, but I think Hazel is more polite." Schuldig explained.

"I think she sucks!" Farf yelled, still in his room.

"Well no one asked you, did they?!" Schuldig yelled back, and the pile of things toppled off the cat. "Damn! Ah well."

"Are you going to pick those up? Never mind. Where's Farfarello?" Crawford asked.

"Dragon's tomb."

"What?"

"That's what he named his bedroom. He thinks I brought home a cat to personally offend him on account of the baby hamster. I didn't, by the way. I keep trying to tell him that I really don't care enough about him to go out looking for a cat to steal, but y'know, he's rather self-centered." Schuldig said. He was absently petting the cat the right way, and then when he noticed he started petting her the other way.

"Get rid of the cat. We have two hamsters, we don't need a cat. Now clean up the living room and get Farf out of his room, he has a mission." Crawford snapped. Schu snorted.

"That's awfully optimistic of you Bradley-chan." He aimed the remote at the TV and flicked to the next cartoon in the DVD set.

Crawford unplugged the DVD player and carried it into his room. When he got back to the living room Schuldig was watching anime. He looked a little annoyed by it, but he was coping. So Crawford pulled the TV away from the wall a bit and started fiddling with the wires.

"You're making the picture all screwy! Hey!" Schuldig threw a soda can at his head. "The trash is off the couch! Does that count as clean?!" He asked as he hucked a Mountain Dew bottle at his leader.

"There." Crawford emerged holding a cable. "Clean the apartment and get Farfarello and you can have this back. Until you do the TV is just a really big and useless paperweight."

"You're sick. And fucking stupid-"

"And I'm the team leader. Start listening to me. I demand respe-stop laughing!"

"You've known me since I was a kid Brad. And you're a precog, you know how this is going to end."

Crawford sighed, because he did know how this was going to end. Sure, it would have been nice if Schuldig had cleaned the apartment, but getting him out of the house for at least a night without him doing anything too illegal (and without suspicion) had its perks too.

After Schuldig left with his cat-stalker in tow Crawford approached Farfarello's door. "Cat's gone."

"You're just saying that!" Farf yelled.

"You can come check if you'd like. And it's not Schuldig talking, it's Crawford. And no, before you ask, Schuldig cannot imitate my voice. And no, this is not Schuldig imitating Crawford imitating Schuldig imitating Crawford's voice."

"Well okay then." Farfarello answered. "But if it really isn't you I'm gonna be mad!"

A small mirror emerged from under the door. Crawford waved at it.

"I guess that's a risk we're going to have to take." He said as the mirror retreated back inside. A moment later the door opened and Farfarello entered, petting his hamster.

"How's Curtina's youngest doing?" Crawford asked.

"Not well. Nerves are shot. I think it would make him feel better if you took Schuldig out for a drive and forgot to bring him back."

"Yeah, that's not happening-"

"Right, right. You said Nagi could kill him. I keep forgetting." Farfarello remembered.

Crawford frowned, uncomfortably aware of the fact his teammates might hold him to that promise one day.

"So what's up?"

"Our boss expects us to work for a living for some odd reason-"

"What's he want us to do, trim his sideburns? Or spike them?" Farfarello asked. "Are they still sideburns, or do you consider them long enough to be chops-"

Crawford snapped in front of Farf's eye. "Focus. You need to go to his son's laboratory and pick up a specimen. Should be in a canister, which I've labeled-"

"What does it sa-"

"You'll know it when you see it. It's in my writing." Crawford explained. "In either case the mission requires you to leave right away. Here's some money for bus fare." He handed Farf an envelope. "Now listen Farfarello, normally I send Nagi on this sort of thing because he's…not you or Schuldig. But Nagi's not here right now so I'm actually counting on you for something important that Esset might kill us over. They want Takatori jr.'s lab work, and it's best if the brat doesn't see you there. Don't let me down Farf."

"I won't let you down Crawfoo!"

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Fifteen minutes later Farfarello was walking out of a gas station convenience store with an Icee and a stack of freshly purchased comic books. He crossed the street for the bus station and reached into his pocket. And pulled out a single yen.

"Shit. That's not gonna take me very far…Okay think. What would Nagi do in this situation…Nagi wouldn't be in this situation. Damn. What would Schuldig do? Mooch off the Weiss!" He snapped his fingers as he said this, and then wailed as he almost dropped the comics.

Farfarello set off cheerfully for the Weiss house, running through possible scenarios for when he got there. "Oh, that's all well and good Farfarello," He started in his Omi voice, which sounded an awful lot like an Irish Mickey Mouse, "but I don't get allowance money. Hm…that is a problem, that singles the chibi out. Well I suppose Schu would go right for the gay cowboy. I'm sure I can get a ride without having to sleep with him."

Meanwhile

"What the hell are you doing here?" Yohji demanded. "I thought you were mad at me!"
"Eh. Got over it when Crawford pulled out the cable to the TV." Schuldig answered. He was laying on Yohji's bed flipping through a magazine, and the window was open. "Speaking of which, where is the TV? Do you have a real living room or do you just use that Mission room?"

Yohji smacked a hand over his face. "I think Kritiker would have a real problem with you knowing about our Mission room."

"Well you should hide your little ruckus room better then. It's just in the basement, anyone could look through the windows and see it. You think the flower shop fan girls don't know about it? Oh don't worry about it, they think it's just a refurbished basement. You know. Because it is. You guys really went all out on that one."

Yohji scowled as he rooted around in his closet for his work coat. "I'm going out so you can't be here right now. You can leave via the window or the door, like a normal person. I don't really care which."

"Yeah, you're cute. So what kind of cable do you guys have?" Schuldig asked.

"Satellite. Not that it matters because you're leaving."

Schuldig laughed.

"I mean it! We are enemy assassins, you cannot stay at my house while I'm on a mission!" He yelled, flustered.

"Well now you're just giving yourself away. I mean really, what are you asking for? Would you rather me come on the mission with you and sabotage it? Because that's my job, but I just wanted to hang out and watch some car-"

"Fine. There are chips in the pantry, don't drink the diet Pepsi. That's Aya's. That's your final and only warning." Yohji said as he pulled on his coat.

Schuldig frowned. "So…you're really leaving now?"

"I have a job." Yohji muttered. "Just because Schwarz never seems to have to work-"

"Oh that's the most clever thing you could come up with to bait me, was it? Fine. I'll eat your chips by myself then. I guess I'll just leech your body warmth some other time." Schuldig answered.

Yohji scowled as he took off for Aya's car and a fun filled afternoon of driving with someone who'd just come back from his first anger management class.

A/N : I know, I know, we're alive and so is the story:) Very sorry to have stopped writing for so long, but we're trying to be back. It'll be a little tricky since I'm at college and me and Chikin don't live together anymore, but we're trying. If any of you are still out there feel free to drop a review, we appreciate them and draw inspiration from them. In the next chappie, Yohji suffers for Aya's anger management:)